Mike’s post, #1926, was excellent.
Mike is an excellent poster, and along with Oroblanco (Roy), a staunch apologist for the treasure magazine versions of "Jesuit caches" in Arizona. Both guys back their arguments with historical - or at least dogmatic - supporting points of view. I admit it's clear that the Jesuits likely operated a handful of productive silver mines in Arizona, yes - enough to be able to manufacture shiny bling for their missions and accumulate some trade money for their day-to-day operations. Yes, a few of these shallow surface workings were later located and mined by Anglos. Yes, silver-bearing slag was discovered at some of the missions (although it has never been clear if this was the result of Jesuit work or the later Franciscans after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767).
Were these mines "exceedingly rich"? Depends on your point of view. One could make a very strong argument that
all newly discovered mines were exceedingly rich to begin with, or else they wouldn't have been bothered with. Look at the history of mining in the west. Most mines were discovered by rich surface outcroppings that pinched out rather quickly. A few had long lives, most didn't. Today's mining is different, but we're talking about the old days. Whereas the Jesuits' activities in South America and Mexico indicate the supposed documentation of large recoveries of mineral wealth, there has not been any indication of similar gold and silver mining success in Arizona - by Jesuits, Anglos or anyone else. The Arizona mines were nowhere as rich (other than copper) as what was found - and is
still being found - in SA and MX. Yes, Mike provided possible explanations of where all the phantom money supposedly went, but it's just
pure speculation.
Yes, we have stories of "Jesuit cache" recoveries - the Quinn recovery, the "Kino bars" find and Kenworthy's supposed silver find. The Quinn recovery was shown to have originally belonged to a rich
Mexican rancher protecting his stash from Villa's revolutionistas. The Kino bars were proven by antiquities forensics to be a
modern fraud. Likewise, Kenworthy's claims were
unsubstantiated. It's all discussed in depth in the numerous Jesuit threads if you have the gumption to read through them. Facts often dash hopes, but I guess you don't have to believe reality if you don't want to.
Point 5 of Post #1926 asks the most important question for "treasure hunters" - if the Jesuits hid vast hoards of gold and silver in AZ, why would anyone assume that in the past 200 years, they did not recover them? Mike's fallback positions on this throughout these lengthy threads have been, primarily, either that
the Jesuits forgot where they hid the loot, or they were incapable of recovering it. These are convenient excuses, but those dogs don't hunt for me.
The bottom line for me (your mileage may vary): The Jesuits did some modest mining in AZ. IMO, the richness of the mines and the sizes of the caches have been greatly exaggerated, as all legends are, as time goes by. If the Jesuits left anything behind, it was most likely humble - candlesticks, vestments, some small silver trade items, etc. If it had been major, they would already have recovered it. Arizona's mineral deposits, other than copper, are small potatoes compared to SA and MX.